2013-2016 Idaho Kokanee Fishing Reports Quick Links

Kokanee Fishing Forums

Help Support Kokanee Fishing Forums:

If this lake has feeder streams that run all year long, someone willing to hike them in the Fall would know for sure by seeing the sea of red fish. If you have 12 inchers and they haven't planted in 3 years, you have some reproduction occurring. This doesn't mean that there is enough happening to make the lake self sustaining but it usually means the fish & game can plant less or run the risk of over populating and end up with a stunted fishery.
 
The South Fork of the Boise River would definitely be large enough to sustain a population of reproducing Chinook. The kokes have been reproducing in the river for years. As a matter of fact you can already go there in the fall and see a mass of red spawners, but right now it is the kokanee that you will see. My understanding is that freshwater chinook tend to mature a bit sooner (2-4 years) as compared to their saltwater brothers who take 3 to as much as 7 years to mature. I am guessing that if the chinook in Anderson are going to successfully reproduce this should be the first year that we see some of them in the river come fall.
 
Went to Anderson last Friday 4-3-15. Started fishing at Lime Creek somewhere near 2:00 and quit at 7:00. Brought home 17 kokanee and 1 chinook. 12-14" on the kokanee and 19" for the chinook which weighed 2.25 pounds on my scale. Pink was good as well as orange. Corn or Gulp maggots on the hooks. A dab of Smelly Jelly Shrimp/Anise seemed to be important as well. Had the rigs stacked at 25 and 35 the whole time with one rod at 45 pulls with a 1 ounce weight. Everything worked. The first 4 fish were on 4 different rods. The chinook was on the weighted rig. Heading up again tomorrow hoping the wind doesn't blow too much.

View attachment 7882
 
Chinook Salmon cannot naturally reproduce in land lock lakes. Just check the historical stocking. Arrowrock Chinook were stocked from 1996 through 1998 with no natural reproduction. CJ Strike 1982, 1984 and 2000 with no natural reproduction. Luck Peak; 1995 through 2000 with no natural reproduction. Anderson ranch; 1982 - 1984 no natural reproduction. Deadwood; 1982 - 1998 no natural reproduction. There are two lakes in Idaho that support a healthy Chinook Population but only with support from F&G, Coeur D Alene and Deadwood (possibly some in southern and eastern Idaho I would not be aware of). All this information is available through the F&G web site and by contacting the Fisheries Managers and Biologists. I have contacted them by email and phone and they have always been very helpful and informative.
 
To say that they cannot is just flat BS if you are making an unequivocal statement about all lakes. Many lakes have natural reproduction but not to the extent that it supports the mission of F&G or stands up to the fishing pressure for that lake.
 
I base my comments on facts from the F&G. Tell me the lake where there is natural reproduction I'll apologize and eat my words if I can be proven wrong..
 
Okay, working on reaching out to my fish biologist and F&G resource for links to articles that will hopefully provide the evidence. I can add that many of the lakes that are being planted with Kings now are being planted with triploid Chinook which means they have been neutered sort of speak so that they are physically incapable of reproducing at all, period. This helps the fish grow bigger, faster as energy is not spent in maturing them sexually, so all their energy goes into growth. But if we are speaking of sexually capable Kings, I'm sticking with my assertion that they can naturally reproduce. It has been 7 years since Kings were planted in Folsom Lake, in my town, and people have been catching Kings there every year since and juveniles are frequently caught and released. Will be back with links when I get them.

Dave
 
Okay Dave, I'm eating my words as I speak. In my defense I was speaking of Idaho lakes only. I wish we had lakes in Idaho where there was a natural spawn. Maybe someday. I enjoyed the debate.
 
Last edited:
It will be less and less likely with the triploids being the new preferred way to plant fish. I don't know if you read more than the second paragraph of the first article but it lists the advantages F&G use to justify that line of thinking. Glad you enjoyed the debate, nothing said was meant to be taken personally. fencing
 
crawdad376 said:
Oh heck,
I have room for all 4, and the set up is nice. however, when fishing with my grand kids, or folks that are not familiar with them, I get really busy. With that in mind, I would rather just cut to 2 downriggers, and stack if i must.
Click to expand...

Ok, I just realized that this response was to an ad I had on the classified. So, I guess y'all think I'm a goober huh. Oh well, not the first time for me..t4luil
 
sawtooth said:
Lunddude, Check out post #18 on page 1 of this thread. The two larger fish in the pictures are the ones he is referring too. I would guess three and four lbs. respectively. Looks like 18" and 19" in length.
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm well aware of the fish he's talking about laugh hyst
 
30carbine said:
Went to Anderson last Friday 4-3-15. Started fishing at Lime Creek somewhere near 2:00 and quit at 7:00. Brought home 17 kokanee and 1 chinook. 12-14" on the kokanee and 19" for the chinook which weighed 2.25 pounds on my scale. Pink was good as well as orange. Corn or Gulp maggots on the hooks. A dab of Smelly Jelly Shrimp/Anise seemed to be important as well. Had the rigs stacked at 25 and 35 the whole time with one rod at 45 pulls with a 1 ounce weight. Everything worked. The first 4 fish were on 4 different rods. The chinook was on the weighted rig. Heading up again tomorrow hoping the wind doesn't blow too much.

View attachment 7882
Click to expand...


Sounds more like it, a 19" Chinook that weighed in at 2.25 lbs. Now that I believe 101goodpost101
 
Last edited:
well, next time i will take a pic of the scale. The small one was 3.89 and the big one was 5.15. They were fat and thick, eating well. The koks are still kind of skinny. Length does not dictate weight. Granted most of there weight was guts, but who weighs fish after gutting. Who knows, mabe my digi scale is off. Like I care though, believe what you want. I got to eat the 2" thick fillets nananana
 
Last edited:
Do you guys know what the primary bait fish is in Anderson? I'm surprised that you are saying that the Chinook taste good. Most of the folks I know that catch them think they taste like crapola because of the food they eat, unlike ocean salmon.
 
SuperD said:
Do you guys know what the primary bait fish is in Anderson? I'm surprised that you are saying that the Chinook taste good. Most of the folks I know that catch them think they taste like crapola because of the food they eat, unlike ocean salmon.
Click to expand...

from what i can tell, they eat koke fry. That is the main reason for f&g stocking them, to cut down on the overpopulation of kokanee. It seems to be working. The year before they stocked, the average size of the kokes was 7-8in. This will be the 3rd summer for the chinook, and the average kokanee size we have seen is 13-14 in. In 2013 (the spring they stocked the chinook) they estimated the koke population at over 4 million. And anderson really is not a big reservour. About 17 miles long and mabe a half mile wide. The ones I ate has a slight pinkish hue to the whiter meat, with good fat marbling. And the meat was rather thick compared to the length of the fish. I was rather suprised. A good 2 in thick in the middle on the 19 incher. The meat was pretty hard and flaky compared to kokanees softer meat. I think the next one I get I will steak it out. That is how i prefer cooking salmon, but kokes tend to be too small for it.
 
Last edited:
Hey Guys....
I'm down in Africa working for about 3 weeks now and have been watching the site for any news. Seems like Anderson and LP are really heating up these days. Haven't seen much about Arrowrock. Anything happening there? How is the water level?

I should be home in about a week or so...... More than ready to get out on the lake.

Pauli
 
Been pretty slow, but the water is still chilly. By the time you get home, it should start picking up...
 

Latest posts

Back
Top